Sew
03-10-2006, 05:36 AM
Body snatchers
The owner of a biomedical tissue supply company has been indicted, along with three other men, on charges of body stealing, fraud, forgery and corruption. At issue is a scheme that allegedly involved carving up more than 1,000 corpses at funeral parlours and selling the parts for profit. Skin was sold for cosmetic surgery and burn victims, bone for orthopaedic uses and dental implants, and cardiac valves for patients with heart problems. Such parts can be processed for profit, unlike lungs, hearts and kidneys, which are handled by non-profit groups.
Michael Mastromarino, owner of the supply company, and Joseph Nicelli, an embalmer and former Brooklyn funeral-parlour owner, allegedly forged death certificates and donor consent forms. In the case of Alistair Cooke, a BBC broadcaster who was 95 years old when he died from cancer in March 2004, fake documents said he died at 85 from a heart attack. Surgical gloves and PVC pipes were stuffed into the corpses to disguise the thefts from unsuspecting families. Charles Hynes, Brooklyn’s District Attorney, revealed that the ring made $4.6m over four years, plundering corpses from more than 30 funeral parlours in New York and nearby states. Funeral-parlour directors were paid $1,000 per corpse by the alleged body-snatchers, and some 12,000 people may have received these parts. On the open market, one body can bring in as much as $250,000 for harvesting and transplant companies, according to Mr Hynes. The Food and Drug Administration now worries that these transplants were not properly screened, and recipients may have been exposed to viruses such as HIV and hepatitis.
The owner of a biomedical tissue supply company has been indicted, along with three other men, on charges of body stealing, fraud, forgery and corruption. At issue is a scheme that allegedly involved carving up more than 1,000 corpses at funeral parlours and selling the parts for profit. Skin was sold for cosmetic surgery and burn victims, bone for orthopaedic uses and dental implants, and cardiac valves for patients with heart problems. Such parts can be processed for profit, unlike lungs, hearts and kidneys, which are handled by non-profit groups.
Michael Mastromarino, owner of the supply company, and Joseph Nicelli, an embalmer and former Brooklyn funeral-parlour owner, allegedly forged death certificates and donor consent forms. In the case of Alistair Cooke, a BBC broadcaster who was 95 years old when he died from cancer in March 2004, fake documents said he died at 85 from a heart attack. Surgical gloves and PVC pipes were stuffed into the corpses to disguise the thefts from unsuspecting families. Charles Hynes, Brooklyn’s District Attorney, revealed that the ring made $4.6m over four years, plundering corpses from more than 30 funeral parlours in New York and nearby states. Funeral-parlour directors were paid $1,000 per corpse by the alleged body-snatchers, and some 12,000 people may have received these parts. On the open market, one body can bring in as much as $250,000 for harvesting and transplant companies, according to Mr Hynes. The Food and Drug Administration now worries that these transplants were not properly screened, and recipients may have been exposed to viruses such as HIV and hepatitis.